|
|||
I N S I D EHilltop House what's hot
Technology is quickly becoming a necessary tool for young people to grow up healthy, educated, and productive in our country. Being prepared with the skills to use computers and the Internet has been shown to create important opportunities for children such as improving academic achievement, developing workforce skills for the future, and improving health. However, some states are doing a better job than others in preparing their residents, and in particular youth, with the resources to participate effectively in today¹s technology-driven world. Is Washington technologically ready?
Here are some stats, entitled The New Workforce: Benefits of Being Prepared With Technology Skills
How wide is the digital opportunity gap? Are Schools Equipping Today’s Youth? Where Washington Stands Washington's Young People Most in Need Check out these stats and get more information here. The site also offers a PDF version.
sub/unsubTo subscribe or unsubscribe to Brainstorm, please email us, and we'll add you to our email notification list, or subtract you per your request. If you have ideas for future stories, please let us know and we'll try to accommodate them. We encourage you to visit the City of Seattle's Community Tech pages, seattle.gov/tech.
"We’re one of the most wired cities in the world, but there’s still much we can do to bring the benefits of this technology revolution to all segments of our city." -Mayor Greg Nickels
|
 Kiyo Yabuki communicates with his daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren living in Yakahama, Japan every Friday via a webcam at Hilltop House.
hilltop house lab connects familiesEven though his family lives thousands of miles away, Kiyo Yabuki sees the smiling faces and hears the laughing voices of his loved ones once a week. A resident of Hilltop House senior housing community, Mr. Yabuki communicates with his daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren living in Yakahama, Japan every Friday via a webcam. Resident Services Manager Karen Lewis set up the exchange in the Hilltop’s computer lab using a web camera and free technologies, such as Yahoo Messenger and Skype. "It’s been a wonderful way to help families connect at virtually no cost," says Lewis. "I love seeing the kids." says Mr.Yabuki, "It’s amazing what you can do now. It’s so much better than the telephone." Hilltop House has long been involved in helping seniors reduce isolation and engage with technology. Located in Seattle’s First Hill neighborhood, Hilltop House is a 124-unit property serving low income seniors, ranging in age from 62 to 102. Hilltop opened one of the first HUD-designated Neighborhood Networks computer centers in the mid 1990s with a few 286 computers in a converted apartment. Today they have a lab with six computers, a printer and cable modem Internet service donated by Comcast. The computers are used in a variety of ways. "The lab means so much to our residents," says Lewis. "It has become a source of entertainment, education and social activity for the seniors. Residents come to the lab to use email, take classes, use the webcam, play games and just have fun. They also access services online, such as signing up for Medicare and Medicaid benefits. The computers are not just used by the senior residents, but by visiting family members as well. The lab has become an integral part of the services at Hilltop. "I just don’t know what we’d do without it," says Lewis. state meeting charts community tech future Pairs of participants compared their visions of community technology at the first "Big Tent" statewide meeting. What’s your challenge? Getting local dial-up Internet? Engaging youth or helping immigrants find jobs? More than 100 community technology leaders from around the state gathered in Ellensburg on October 19 at the first state-wide Big Tent meeting to compare notes about needs and help chart a vision for community technology in Washington. Communities Connect is a statewide initiative being managed by the Center to Bridge the Digital Divide at Washington State University. They have been developing a ten-year vision for community technology in the state, which will be turned into an action plan. Attendees from towns and organizations big and small shared their experiences and provided feedback on a draft vision. The plan, so far, calls for statewide efforts and leadership to take action in these six areas:
Mark your calendar for October 19, 2015. There are likely to be more meetings before this, but futurist and facilitator Robert Textor called on all of us to save the date to gather again and reflect on what we’ve accomplished over the past 10 years. See you there! The results of the statewide meeting, are posted on the Communities Connect website. Success: Youth, Multimedia and Learning Our workshop with Tony Streit, director of YouthLearn, was a great success. This was presented in partnership with the Puget Sound Alliance for Community Technology (PSACT) and hosted at the Technology Access Foundation. Materials from the workshop are now available on the PSACT.org website.
d.o.l.l.a.r.sDeadline: December 31 Provides fund for creativity in education. Supports schools and community-based organizations with programs that enable and inspire K-12 students to think creatively, communicate effectively, and work collaboratively, using digital technology and communication tools. Deadline: December 31 Provides funds to cover 50% of the retail price of adaptive devices or software. The program allows blind and visually impaired individuals access to technology products that will have a significant impact on improving employment opportunities, increase the level of independence and enhance their overall quality of life. Deadline: Ongoing Provides funds to support K-12 education and workforce and economic development programs in Washington. Funds innovative models to strengthen K-12 public school education, improve skills and leadership of educators and effective use of technology to improve K-12 public school instruction. Also funds programs that build job-entry skills through initiatives that focus on school to career transition, adult learning and workforce development. Also funds projects that develop and deliver technology instruction to improve workforce readiness. Educational Foundation of America Deadline: Ongoing Letter of Inquiry Provides funds for projects that support the environment, the crisis of human overpopulation and reproductive freedom, Native Americans, arts, education, medicine, and human services. l.i.n.k.a.g.etalking turkeyNativeTech - Indigenous food recipe database Do you know what a turkey wattle is? Reading comprehension worksheets: Native American themes Find the turkey: What will I look like when I grow up? Native American feasts article with recipes and glossary Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian Other Teachers Guides, including Native Quilting University of Washington Burke Museum links to Washington tribes What is Organic food and what does the organic label mean? t.e.c.h.t.i.pthe skinny on podcastingPodcasting is a distribution method that enables independent producers to create self-published "radio" and now "video" shows over the internet via a publish and subscribe model. As a user, you can subscribe to regular updates of content. When you subscribe, content will be delivered directly to your podcast player. Podcasting combines the words "broadcasting" and "iPod." The term can be misleading, since neither podcasting nor listening to podcasts requires an iPod or any portable player, and no true broadcasting is involved. To podcast, the author or publisher posts a list of programs in a special format, known as a feed, on the web. A user who wants to see or hear the podcast subscribes to the feed using special podcatching" software (a type of aggregator), which periodically checks the feed and automatically downloads new programs as they become available. Typically, the podcatching software also transfers the program to a desktop or portable media player. Community Technology Programs or centers could use podcasting to offer your own training tip of the day that may change on a regular basis. Once a person has subscribed to your pod casting, they would ear all of your radio announcements. Student created neighborhood audio tours could be posted as podcasts. By 2003, web radio had existed for a decade, digital audio players had been on the market for several years, blogs and broadcasters frequently published MP3 audio online, and RSS file formats were starting to be popular for summarizing or syndicating Web content. In 2001, UserLand founder and RSS evangelist Dave Winer responded to requests from customers for a way to deliver video or audio with their RSS feeds. RSS feeds are news or information that is updated from another website that a webmaster can place on a site. If you are interested in particular content, e.g., YouthLearn updates, you can download an RSS reader, such as Thunderbird by Mozilla, and then point it to the web site to get their regular feeds. The word about podcasting rapidly spread through the already popular weblogs of Curry, Winer and other early podcasters and podcast listeners. Fellow blogger and technology columnist Doc Searls began keeping track of how many hits Google found for the word "podcasts" on September 28, 2004, when the result was 24 hits. "A year from now," he wrote, "it will pull up hundreds of thousands, or perhaps even millions." As of November 05, 2005, Google reports 90,100,000 for the podcast inquiry. free internetFree cable broadband Internet service is available for organizations providing technology training to community members. The free service is offered in the Comcast service delivery area and within the Seattle city limits, based on the City’s cable franchise agreement. For more information and to download a short form to make application, go to our tech web. If you have questions, email Derrick Hall or call (206) 233-5061. archivesBack issues of Brainstorm including techtips and linkage are now available in our online archives. Previous TechTips and Linkage are also available. Click to revisit all previous issues. |
|||
